May: Secure Furnishings
Securing Furnishings Throughout Your Home
The forces that create earthquakes cause the earth literally to quake, or shake, from a few seconds to a few minutes in length as well as producing ground swells and rolls from a few inches to a few feet in height.
Tall pieces of furniture, such as bookcases, china hutches and armoires are very likely to fall when the ground is rolling and shaking. You can prevent them from falling on someone you care about, and save their contents, by completing the following simple mitigation activities this month:
- Click on the Furnishings link below to open a folder that contains project instruction sheets for securing tall furniture and their contents. Print out the instruction sheets and put them in your Family Disaster Plan notebook for handy reference.
- Schedule a morning or afternoon sometime this month for you and your family to secure the tall furnishings in your home.
- Take an inventory of the tall furnishings you have throughout your house.
- Purchase sufficient L-brackets or corner brackets and screws from the hardware store.
- When you get together, first locate the wall studs behind your tall furnishings using a stud finder. Then secure furnishings to the studs with the appropriate hardware.
- Place heavy and/or large items on lower shelves.
- Secure objects on shelves with velcro, monofilament or wire guy lines, non-skid shelf liners or special quake-hold putties.